1. The launcher status is linked to the website status, not directly to the game server. The website is down, therefor the launcher is also unresponsive (when it comes to loading the proper information).
2. The location of the host is irrelevant. In a situation like this the host isn't really able to to much to be honest. A DDOS attack is nothing more than an overload of valid server requests from a large number of PCs. Someone (or in this case a group of people) have likely infected thousands of computers with a trojan that gives them access to the DOS functionality. They then target a server (or connection) and overload it requests (ping for example), locking up all the bandwidth. Plus, German hosts are superior, period. So no, lesson not learned, an American host wouldn't have made any difference, in fact it would likely have been a lot worse.